History of dEcode®

ABC dEcode® began 30 years ago as a method for teaching reading to individuals, mostly people in their early and late teens, who had been trying to read, and had been through a number of reading programs with no positive results.

The method evolved through Dr. Deborah Chesnie Cooper’s practice and was clinically based. Dropping all other methods aside, Dr. Cooper developed this very unique program as a result of listening to each and every student that came to the clinic.

Through extensive pre- and post-testing, it was discovered that the ABC dEcode® method did much more than merely help the individual to read. It affected the underlying auditory and visual processing deficits that not only prevented the onset of “reading” but ABC dEcode® also addressed such processes that affect sequential learning, language, speech, and visual focusing, enabling the individual to succeed in far more academic and social areas than reading alone.

Through a pilot study, it was established that ABC dEcode® could be a stand alone product. Pilot testing was administered with children in St. Catherines on a 1:2 basis over a period of 3 months by trained facilitators. The students who were given ABC dEcode® outperformed the control students who were exposed to other remedial methods at the same time.

The ABC dEcode® program was taken a step further and developed into a software format. Learning constantly from her students, Dr. Chesnie Cooper has developed additional new exercises and incorporated them in the electronic version. The CD format allows far more exposure to the method, freedom of access, and more affordability. Working 10 to 20 minutes per day, 4 to 5 days per week, highly noticeable improvements are achieved in just 3 to 6 months; not just in decoding ability, but in reading comprehension and central auditory processing.